NZXT Kraken X40 & X60 CPU Water Cooler Reviews

Kraken Control Software Overview

To take full advantage of the Kraken liquid coolers, NZXT has available the Kraken Control software. In here, you can do various things such as monitor temperatures, change the profile from Silent to Extreme, set up your own custom fan speed profiles, or even change the LED color on the pump. Let’s take a brief look at how this software works.

The software features a series of tabs on the bottom edge, so starting with the very first one we have the dashboard. This is where you can monitor the liquid temperature, CPU temperature, or even just see how fast the fan(s) and pump are running.

I need to note, that the CPU temperature does not appear to be available for Haswell CPUs at this time. You will need to rely on other software to tell you this.

On the top right is where you can quickly change from the Silent, Extreme, or Custom profiles. This will be present on all tabs.

The Graph tab will give you a timeline of fan speed and temperature.

Moving onto the Fan Settings tab, this is where you can see what the levels at which the fan will ramp up based on temperature. You can even set your own custom profile, which is awesome!

Light Settings is the next tab, and this is where you can add a little “bling” to your system. Here you can change the static color of the NZXT logo on the pump, or even tell it to change a certain color when the temperature reaches a certain number.

Finally on the General Settings tab you can enable auto start, logging, and alerts for fan speed or liquid temperature.

That’s that! The Kraken Control software is a pretty nice addition to this kit. Let’s move on and check out the system being used today.

Just a word of warning, Please please please don’t believe what is written in the compatibility guide online. They aren’t tested in any of the cases bar their own like they have you believe, and the product is not compatible with the majority for rear placement (only top placement where larger Rads should be going).

As they refuse to accept any responsibility, I am now taking it upon myself to warn others before they make a similar mistake. Although its a nice product, the support is terrible, and it is only really compatible with their own cases for the majority.

Guest

Hi, i run a crossfire with the x40 on each GPU. i noticed i can only control one of the pumps/fans. Any idea why?

Thank You

Paul Margettas

The software is probably only designed to control one pump at a time.

David

Hi, I noticed that you installed your x60 backwards (hoses on the right, resulting in the nzxt logo being upside down) and left in the rear 140mm fan. Most builds I’ve seen pictures of floating around remove the 140mm fan from the rear and install the x60 (hoses on the left) resulting in the logo being right side up. 2 questions 1) do you recommend installing it the way you installed yours (leaving in the rear 140 mm fan) and 2) is there a reason you installed it upside down in terms of the logo?

BuzzFuzz

David, it doesn’t matter in which way.. they turned that way coz of pipe maybe looks better this way. cheers